San Francisco - on our way home

We often entertain ourselves with the SkyMall magazines on the plane. We spotted this hat and thought it fantastic! Mark believes he saw a guy wearing one at Yellowstone. It would be ideal for the follicly challenged folks we know... though we name no names!!

For our night in San Fran we had dinner with an ex-Coles colleague of Marks and his wife. They took us to a restaurant on the bay, close by, and it was a very pleasant evening. The guys caught up on the all the goings on at Coles and Apple. The following day we had until 6pm to be at the airport. We took advantage of the late to pack, mooch and dozed in the room until nearly 1pm.

On checking out we left our luggage in the hotel locker and caught a shuttle bus to Burlingame town. Our hotel was in Burlingame which is considered an airport hotel. We really enjoyed strolling the streets of Burlingame. A very lovely shopping strip. Very much like you would find in Melbourne. We got back to the hotel with time to spare so had a good walk along the waterfront and watching the planes take off and land. Maybe you can see the airport main runway built into the bay. It was fascinating to see the frequency the planes come in and out. In particular was when 2 planes took off at the same time on parallel runways. Once in the air for only 5 - 10 seconds they would start banking away from each other.

A final drink in the hotel bar, with the 2nd game of the World Series baseball playing on the screen, we acknowledged we had had a really great holiday and are fortunate to have had the opportunity.

Yep we did a little shopping, The red soft backpack was empty when we left! Im posting this from Auckland airport. Our final flight home is in about 1.5 hrs and we look forward to seeing you all again. In particular - our babies!!! ..... until next time... hopefully never too far away! xD&M

Banff (& Calgary)

It was an easy 1 hr drive from Lake Louise to Banff. We initially headed towards the Bow Valley Parkway, being the more picturesque route. In reality it ran on one side of the Bow River with Highway 1 running the other side of the river. We only went a couple of hundred metres on the Parkway and decided it was possibly not the wisest choice. The road had not been ploughed at all, and we just didnt want to have any problems. The snow was about 6" thick, and we had read it was snowing more, closer to Banff. Another decider was that on the previous day, we had seen a car completely stuck as the whole front wheel arch was bogged with snow. We didnt need that! So we headed back to the main Highway.

Banff is such a great town. A decent size and it felt like a move set. We strolled the streets, did a little shopping and found a decent coffee... always a winner :-)

We also loved how close the mountains were to the town.

Again we booked to stay at the Fairmont Hotel. This time the Banff Springs. This was as we were arriving. It certainly makes a statement.

The lobby was like a James Bond movie of the past...

The view from our room.... this time overlooking the Bow River Valley. Incredible huh!

We didnt let the -8C temp stop us from walking down to the Bow River Falls, below the hotel.

Bow River Falls.

A 'lil panorama

Guess who forgot their gloves?

Looking back up to the main building ofthe hotel.

The hotel is a large complex of incredible buildings. It was the 4 month stay, summer break, for the wealthy in the '20's & 30's. When they arrived they apparently had to provide a credit note for no less that $30,000. Alot of dosh for those days!

Posers!

After a drink in the bar to 'warm up' it was then out to the other side of the main building for some window shopping. On the right in this pic is an octagonal white building. We at dinner here. It is called Costello and my initial impression as we arrived was that it looked like a white costello cheese. Nice dinner but kept forgetting to take foodie pics till we had eaten :-)

The view not long before dark. It just seemed to glow a deep blue....

We left early the next morning to allow enough time for hold ups on the road. We were facing a 130km drive they said takes about 1.5 hrs in summer. We were unsure what the roads would be like. Check out the temp check I did on my phone before we headed out!!!

As it turned out, the highway was pretty good. This photo is close to Calgary where both lanes were clear and dry. In the early sections it was cleared one lane though still icy. We were disappointed when we finally left the mountains and the land flattened out towards Calgary. We made it to the airport with a couple of hrs to spare but we did have to do USA immigration here. Unfortunately once the plane pushed out from the gate, they announced delays in San Fran and that they were going to park for 20 mins or so. Well that ended up become 1.5 hrs of delay with people getting tetchy about missing connecting flights. Apparently San Fran was having weather problems and had stopped all planes in and out. We arrived in SF safely and thats all that matters in the end. We were just glad we werent trying to connect immediately to our flight home. We have 24 hrs in SF before that flight.

Lake Louise

It was close to 5pm when we arrived at Lake Louise. Adding to the slow drive down the Icefields Parkway, we also lost an hour when we crossed the border from British Columbia into Alberta. We figured we are likely to only get here once in our lifetime so decided to stay at the iconic Fairmont Hotel right on the lake. We were initially met by one of the staff outside the hotel. As it is so cold, they come to the car to give check in options. The were dressed like they were out of The Sound of Music. We decided to park our car undercover and catch the lift up to reception, rather than walk in and out over the slippery footpaths, to check in.

There was a short queue to check in. They had a conference about to commence and the final delegates for that were arriving too. We had been told by friends who have stayed here before, that the rooms are small, being an old hotel. Being more on the frugal side I chose a room without a lake view (saving many $$) expecting we would only be in the room to sleep. Well you can imagine our delight when we were told we had been upgraded to not only a lake view room but a Junior Suite. One of their biggest rooms. How lucky are we!! We were pleased to see this view above from our room, and before it got dark.

It's a very large hotel with many corridors. Loved these medieval style chandeliers.

And can you see the woman holding the lights in these ones?

The next morning we slept in and decided to have breakfast in our room, watching and hoping the clouds would lift off the mountains at the end of the lake.

Did a little blogging homework in my lounge!

Then it was time to rug up and brave the -6C temp and go out for a walk around the lake. We certainly weren't expecting it to be this cold here in October.

Mawson the explorer! The path wasn't slippery at all. I am pleased the shoes I bought at home have been fantastic in the cold. No cold feet at all.

The hotel from up the lake.

Our chins and noses were getting very cold and rosy.

We walked to the point over my right shoulder and back again. That was enough cold for us. It was just gorgeous.

A lounge in the hotel.

Lobby and reception. Loved this chandelier too.

We had lunch in one of the lounges and fortunately got a table at this windown. The lake view just kept changing and getting better as the day went on.

Later again in the day, from our room.

The snow was melting off the trees if the sun was on them for a while. You can see how the lower trees look darker now.

We decided to dine in their Walliser Stube restaurant. They serve Swiss & German style food. The room was amazing. This wall is one of the floor to ceiling wine cabinets.

We chose quite traditional foods. A shared plate of air dried meats (bacon, ham, beef) served with a variety of pickles.

We have had a couple of wines from this company. This bottle proved unusual in that the wine list said it was a 2011 Merlot, though when it arrived, the bottle had no year of vintage on it. The label stated this wine was a demonstration of skill in the art of mixing wine, by their winemaker. Wanting to drink Canadian wine while here, we were disconcerted to read further on the label that it was a mix of international and local wine. Whilst we were enjoying the wine and not complaining, we quizzed the sommellier about this, thinking we were probably drinking Australian, Argentinean or Chilean wine with a couple of Canadian grapes thrown in. These are popular red wines here. He said this wine maker has vines on both sides of the Canadian border and this mix just meant the wine also has grapes grown in USA. We weren't utterly convinced, because if this is so, why no year of vintage??? (I know - sounding like a wine snob here... but so be it)

We chose not to have the set fondue menu of cheese fondue, followed by beef & bison fondue, followed by chocolate fondue. We decided on sharing the traditional fondue (3 cheeses, chardonnay & kirsch). It came with the splate of pickles & veges, and I also oredered the salad to have something on the side to cut the cheese. The fondue was just like I had with Christian & Gianina (family) in Switzerland. If I recall correctly, Christian ordered around 200gms of cheese per person. Well this one was 340gms between the 2 of us.... and I am disappointed to say, we couldnt eat it all. After Mark had his first mouthful, he said "thats delicious but you could not eat too much". We gave it our best shot, but would have been a disappointment to the Swiss. I couldnt stop laughing while Mark groaned and held his stomach over the next couple of hours. It was just like I did in the back of the car on the way home from Gruyere. ........ We were mighty thrilled to see a heavier snow falling as we went to bed. So pretty!

Our amazing day....

A very light snow started to fall as we were packing the car. Mark, a happy man this car came with an ice scraper in the trunk. We left the cabin around 9am.

The roads ahead were being broadcast as poor due to ice and low visibility, we wanted to allow plenty of time, being inexperienced at driving on icy roads.

Only a km or so down the highway we officially entered our first park of the day and got a hint of the weather ahead.

It had been the first snow of the season and the snow ploughs were trying to get on top of it.

This guy was dropping a mix of what seemed to be pebbles and salt on the road. To melt the ice and it was good for traction.

In just under 90km we arrived in Jasper.

We proved to be truly reticent even at walking. The first step out of the car warned me it was super slippery. Whenever we walked across an icy patch Im sure our style was similar to if we had soiled our pants. No doubt entertaining for anyone watching.

Again, 5mins of research paid off. The best coffee was to be had in this spotless and huge coin laundry. It was being run by a lovely kiwi chick who made fantastic coffees. (All in the name of research John!)

Before leaving Jasper we took a little drive to Lake Edith. The sun kindly popped out for this shot. It was so pretty!

From Jasper we had nearly 240 km of road ahead, known as the Icefields Parkway, with only one stop available for services or help. Very quickly it was like stepping into a surreal black and white world. The scenery is indescribable. In the past we have seen portions of the Rocky Mountains in & around Colorado. This section proved truly amazing.

We stopped off for a little sightseeing. It was all a fun adventure to us and we were loving it. We soon found the snow to be so much softer and fluffier than our little experience in the past.

Mark grabbed a handful and decided to blow it into the air.

Next I hear 'bastard of a thing' as the snow just flew back into his face.

Check out the results. Note he is now down to mo & goatee!

It was mostly -4C for the day but it didnt stop me regularly jumping out to enjoy the views. This was so gorgeous. The water looked quite aqua even though it was shallow.

Another reminder the roads could be dodgy ahead.

A couple of pretty caribou trotted across the road.

Conveniently, at some of the pulloffs where you safely stop to see the view, they had public toilets. We were on the lookout for one, and as luck would have it we pulled up right opposite this half frozen waterfall.

These fluffy guys would often appear near the exhaust of the car when we stopped. I guess they have learned how to keep warm.

We often drove in silence till one of us would say things like "its hard to tell the road from the river"

There was fabulous mountain after mountain. This region also has many glaciers but with the low cloud and snow, we only spotted 3.

This is when lines like "OMG, we are ice road truckers" were being tossed out...

I love my new elevation app on my phone. It works off GPS and tracked us from a start of around 800m in Mt Robson, 1000m in Jasper to this near highest point of the day.

One of the few stretches of barricades on the side of the road.

I couldn't resist these very cute little seed heads popped out of the snow.

The road started to clear as we got nearer Lake Louise.

The sun nearly through the clouds. It was truly majestic... I can not say enough superlatives for this experience. We feel truly fortunate to have experienced this drive safely and to have seen it at this time of year. One day... oh one day... we may be lucky to visit again on a clear summer day.

Near Lake Louise we passed Herbert Lake. A pretty calm reflective lake.